Significant problems with "tasers" – including fatalities – and manufacturer TASER International in USA and around the world

TASERS have today become standard issue to countless American police departments. They have also been marketed abroad, particularly in Canada. Yet they remain as controversial today as when TASER International Inc. (since April 2017, rebranded as AXON Enterprise Inc.), the sole manufacturer, started marketing them in the mid-1990s.

GlobalShock.org provides journalists, researchers and activists – any visitors, in fact - with local, national and international reports that counterbalance the corporate discourse.

GlobalShock.org is a unique open-access 3,500-post archive of “taser problems”, particularly of incidents when they surface and as more elements come to light, through reports in local news-media outlets. We make no claim to “balanced information”. The manufacturer has thrown its weight behind its corporate interests; we are a counterweight. Our thesis is that taser problems far outweigh the benefits, despite widespread acceptance of taser-technology as the “new-normal”.

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The Sudbury Star
Fewer cases of Greater Sudbury Police using force last year can be attributed, at least in part, to the sobering presence of Tasers and more training on how to defuse tense situations.
"Our officers here have access to simulation rooms and all sorts of options stressing de-escalation techniques," said Chief Paul Pedersen, following a Thursday meeting of the Police Services Board at which an ...

[DEATH: Rui Nabico in November 2016 in Toronto]
Toronto Star
Rui Nabico would've died even if police hadn’t deployed a conducted energy weapon, the Special Investigations Unit said in a detailed report.
Ontario’s police watchdog says it has no reasonable grounds to charge a Toronto police officer involved in the death of Rui Nabico, who was Tasered and later pronounced dead in November 2016.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) ...

Hartford Courant
West Hartford town councilors this week voted on an offer of judgement or a settlement offer of $150,000 to a student at the American School for the Deaf who was tasered twice by West Hartford Police in 2013.
Town councilors this week voted to settle a 5-year-old federal lawsuit that accused two police officers of using excessive force against a 12-year-old deaf student with disabilities ...

WKMG-News 6
ORLANDO, Fla. - At least five students were exposed to pepper spray Tuesday after an Orlando Police Department school resource officer used the spray and a Taser to break up a fight at Glenridge Middle School, officials with the Police Department said.
The school resource officer responded to a fight between two girls, ages 11 and 13, at 9:19 a.m. on the Upper Park Road school campus. ...

WMAZ- Channel 13
[DEATH: Charles "Charlie" Williams, 30 on 27 January \2018, in Barrow County, Georgia]
BARROW COUNTY, Ga. - Footage from a handheld camera recorded by Barrow County Sheriff’s Office showed what happened prior to a man’s death while in custody.
On January 27, 30-year-old Charles "Charlie" Williams was being moved from one facility to the Barrow County Detention Center around 2:30 that afternoon. Williams was already ...

[DEATH: William Porubsky, 30, on 3 September 2017 in Stow, Ohio]
WKYC
Published: 8:20 PM EST February 12, 2018
A Stow police officer has been acquitted of charges against him following a fatal shooting.
On Monday, Officer Robert Molody was found to use justifiable force in the fatal shooting of a 30-year-old man outside of an Akron homeless shelter last September.
According to reports, just before 11:30 PM on September ...

[DEATH: 35-year-old Ricardo Enrique Colon, 35, on 8 February 2018 in Grant, Florida]]
Space Coast Daily
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Brevard County Sheriff’s Office announced on Friday that the man shot in a officer involved shooting in Grant late Thursday afternoon has died from his injuries.
The man has been identified as 35-year-old Ricardo Enrique Colon from Grant.
Colon was taken to the hospital in critical condition, where he ...

[DEATH: Pierre Coriolan, 27, June 2017 in Montreal]
By The Canadian Press
https://globalnews.ca/news/4016334/families-say-quebec-police-watchdog-leaving-them-out-of-deadly-shooting-probes/
Canadian Press
A deadly incident between Montreal police and Pierre Coriolan was caught on an iPhone.
Eight months after their 27-year-old son Noam was fatally shot by Montreal police following a car chase, Jacob and Rachel Cohen still have more questions than answers about why he died.
Since Quebec’s police watchdog has taken over the investigation, the family ...

ABC-Australia
The NT Ombudsman has recommended police "carefully consider" the use of tasers on children, but has stopped short of backing a ban, in the wake of an officer using one on an unarmed 12-year-old boy.
The 12-year-old was a passenger in a stolen car when it pulled into a Bakewell petrol station in November 2016.
When police confronted the three boys in the car at the petrol ...

[DEATH: Unnamed man on 3 February 2018 in northern Los Angeles County]
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is investigating the death of a man who collapsed and died after a confrontation with deputies attempting to arrest him.
The man, whose name has not been released, lost consciousness after he was shocked with a Taser and handcuffed by deputies outside of his home in northern ...

North Somerset Times
A rise in violence has seen more than 350 Avon and Somerset police officers trained to use a Taser in the past year.
The Constabulary decided to offer their officers extra protection, with 379 officers now fully equipped to use the weapon.
Chief Constable Andy Marsh said: “In the past week alone, there have been 19 assaults on our police officers.
“There’s a lot of misinformation ...

[DEATH: unnmaned man on 3 February 2018 in Timmins, Ontario]
Timmins Press
TIMMINS - Ontario's special investigations unit (SIU) is investigating the death of a man in Timmins.
The SIU is a civilian agency, which investigates death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault in incidents involving police, posted the statement to Twitter Saturday afternoon.
"SIU investigating the death of man this morning in Timmins, in area of James Avenue and ...

WIVB
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Buffalo police could be getting a new tool — tasers. The department says it’s the very early stages of researching the devices. Captain Jeff Rinaldo says the SWAT team is the only part of the department that has and uses tasers.
This isn’t the first-time Buffalo police has considered getting tasers. Captain Jeff Rinaldo says he researched the tool for the department ...

[DEATH: Gilberto Salas, 20, on 31 January 2018 in St. James, south-central Minnesota]
Minneapolis Star Tribune
The man shot and killed by police in south-central Minnesota was identified Thursday as 20-year-old Gilberto Salas of Gaylord.
Salas was killed Wednesday afternoon in St. James, after he allegedly stole a vehicle and led police on a high-speed chase, then hid in a store where he was shot.
The state Bureau of ...

National Post
New South Wales Police were called to the parking lot of the Byron Bay lighthouse amid reports that an erratic naked man was posing a threat to himself. The Canadian tourist attacked their police cruiser with his head.Tweed Byron Local Area Command
As part of a crime wave of naked attacks that have struck eastern Australia, a Canadian tourist was arrested, charged and convicted for ...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/uncategorized/5473073/video-proves-police-lied-about-attack-by-autistic-man-they-tasered/
The Sun
Police drew, aimed or fired Tasers in mental health hospitals, wards, and clinics 58 times in the first six months of figures being recorded.
The government says a Taser should be a last resort - but campaigners say they should never be used in such settings.
The data, from 43 UK area forces, covers the six months to September 2017, when Tasers were fired 22 times.
Three ...

Netherlands Times††
The Dutch police are launching an experiment next week in which police officers in Rotterdam, Zwolle and Amersfoort will be equipped with tasers. In the coming weeks over 300 officers will undergo a two day training course on how to use a taser safely, and will then be allowed to use the weapon on the street if necessary, NOS reports.
According to the police, officers ...

BBC
Police drew, aimed or fired Tasers in mental health hospitals, wards, and clinics 58 times in the first six months of figures being recorded.
The government says a Taser should be a last resort - but campaigners say they should never be used in such settings.
The data, from 43 UK area forces, covers the six months to September 2017, when Tasers were fired 22 times.
Three used ...

Fox-9 News
St. JAMES, Minn. (KMSP) - A police pursuit ended in a fatal officer-involved shooting in Watonwan County, Minn. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the case.
Late Wednesday morning, Nicollet County sheriff's deputies started following a vehicle in LaFayette because the vehicle had been reported stolen out of New Ulm. Multiple law enforcement agencies participated in the pursuit until it was called off for safety reasons. ...